EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

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European Court of Auditors

June 2017

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

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EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Open invitation to the Journal

By Gaston Moonen

ECA conference on Youth Employment: confronting challenges and inding solutions

Brussels, 10 May 2017

By Gaston Moonen

Meetings with the Portuguese government and Court of Auditors

By Marc-Oliver Heidkamp, Lehne’s private oice Attaché

Xth EUROSAI Congress, Istanbul, 22-25 May 2017

By Radek Majer, Directorate of the Presidency

ECA auditors meet academics to discuss EU accountability

By Torielle Perreur-Lloyd, senior administrator Chamber III

Internal Audit Service of the Commission ready for more cooperation with the ECA

By Andreas Bolkart, Directorate of the Presidency

Farewell to Rosmarie Carotti

By Alex Brenninkmeijer, chair of the Journal’s Editorial Board

Europe Day events in May: EU auditors hand in hand with Europe’s citizens

By Damijan Fišer, Directorate of the Presidency

‘Health under control’

The NIK/ECA/Medical University of Łódź joint conference held in Poland

By Kinga Wisniewska-Danek, head of cabinet

FOCUS

Special reports Nos 7 & 8/2017

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Open invitation to the Journal

For many years now, the ECA has been known as a solid and professional

institution. We can be relied upon to serve as the independent guardians

of the inancial interests of the citizens of the European Union. Changes do

occur, but they are more an issue of evolution than of revolution. The same

goes for the ECA Journal. Over time, the Journal has changed considerably,

but it has always been in an incremental fashion. One of the most recent

changes has been in personnel and I am very happy to succeed Mrs Rosmarie

Carotti as Editor-in-chief. Hers are big shoes to ill, but I will do my best to

build on all the good work Rosmarie has done and ensure that the Journal

continues to relect the wide range of activities undertaken by the ECA.

Such a task I cannot do alone. I will need input from colleagues, ECA

management and also from the many high-level visitors and guest speakers

who help us carry out our tasks better. So, please do send me your feedback,

ideas, suggestions, etc. to

[email protected].

I count on your input

to help develop the ECA Journal further and make it even more interesting!

The articles in this edition can be summarised in two words: ‘reaching out’;

we want to share the knowledge we have…and learn from others. When

we organised the ECA conference on Youth Employment, we reached out

to policy-makers and the younger generation, to push the topic higher up

on the political agenda. For more details, see page 5. By participating in

the EUFINACCO workshop in Berlin on inancial accountability in the EU,

we reached out to the academic world. It was an opportunity to connect

concrete indings with conceptual discussions (see page 16). And at the Xth

EUROSAI Congress we reached out to the European audit community, sharing

our experiences to promote innovation in audit (see page 14). Finally, the ECA

reached out directly to EU citizens by participating in this year’s Europe Day

activities. We took part ‘in person’ at events for citizens in Talinn, Strasbourg,

Warsaw, Brussels and Luxembourg (see page 22). In short, the ECA is keen on

reaching out to intensify the dialogue about our work and be inspired by new

ideas!

Gaston Moonen

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

ECA conference on Youth Employment:

confronting challenges and inding solutions

Brussels, 10 May 2017

By Gaston Moonen

The ECA conference on youth employment, held on 10 May in the European

Parliament in Brussels, brought together high-level representatives from several EU

institutions, employment organisations, but also young people. In many EU countries

young people are experiencing serious diiculties in inding a job and the Youth

Guarantee scheme aims to alleviate this problem. ‘Europe has no time to loose, young

people have no time to loose. They should be helped and not be left alone’, said Ms

Ivanova, The ECA Member who initiated the conference, to the young people present

in the conference and following discussions through webstreaming.

Mariane Thyssen, Commissioner; Pavel Telicka, Vice-

President of the European Parliament; Klaus-Heiner

Lehne, ECA President; Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-

President for the Euro in the European Commission,

Iliana Ivanova, ECA Member; Martina Dlabajova,

Member of the European Parliament

Opening: Europe’s big challenge towards its young generation

The conference was opened with welcome addresses by Mr Pavel Telicka, Vice-President of

the European Parliament, and by Mr Klaus-Heiner Lehne, ECA President. Mr Telicka pointed

out the persistence of too high levels of youth unemployment in many Member States of 20

to 25% of the work force. Even in countries where it is relatively low it is still higher than the

average unemployment rates, while, in his opinion, youth employment should be lower than

the average unemployment rate.

He underlined that it is both a Member State and EU responsibility and the problem is a

policy issue, not a budgetary issue, requiring action from many policy areas. Member States

and the EU have shared competences to be used to address the regulatory environment

to decrease the administrative burden and bring down barriers to employ young people.

On the other side increase in support to SMEs should be considered. Towards the young

generation it will be essential to stimulate their motivation for education, acquiring skills,

searching for opportunities and showing entrepreneurship. This goes with successes and

failure and the latter is also part of the learning curve. Mr Telicka pled for more multi-layered

solutions and the conference could help to identify which of these failed and which were

successful.

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ECA conference on Youth Employment: confronting

challenges and inding solutions

continued

According to Mr Lehne providing jobs and education for the young generation remained

one of the EU’s biggest challenges, no matter which institution one represents. He added

that ‘We must ensure that the Union gives young Europeans a perspective to base their

lives upon – that the Union is their perspective.’ He referred to the four reports the ECA has

published on this topic during the last years, looking at employment programmes and EU

education programmes supported by EU initiatives.

Keynote address: European action to support national initiatives and expertise

Mr Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue in the European

Commission, welcomed the most recent ECA report on youth employment as an important

assessment that needs to be taken very seriously. The Commission has youth employment

very high on its agenda but Mr Dombrovskis also referred to what Commission President

Juncker has said on this: ‘We hold summit after summit promising to bring down the

unemployment numbers- particularly youth unemployment – despite this being far from

the realm of Europe’s capability. Tools at EU level cannot do miracles if national action is not

enough.’ The Commission ofers the platform and funding but the expertise and tailor-made

services need to be mobilised at national, regional and local level.

European Semester and structural labour market reforms

According to Mr Dombrovskis the strong impetus on structural reforms and policy

innovation is paying of: youth unemployment is declining. But it comes from far: young

people were hit the hardest on labour markets during the economic crisis, more sensitive

to the economic cycle, being less likely to be hired but easier to ire. Important root causes

for diicult entry to the labour market is insuicient gearing of education and training to

the real needs of labour markets; low capability of public employment services to provide

these tailored services, and long-term unemployment efects on young people’s future

employment prospects (the so-called ‘scarring efect’). For breaking through these root

causes structural reform is needed, which is what the European Semester, which is in Mr

Dombrovskis portfolio, aims at. He highlighted broader labour market reforms targeted at

reaching young people not in employment or education, aimed to make the labour market

less segmented and more lexible and focussing on training and apprenticeships and

inclusion of speciic groups, like Roma and young migrants.

Youth Guarantee schemes: glass half-full instead of half-empty

The Commission looks at the Youth Guarantee scheme and considers the glass half-

full rather than half-empty. Both Mr Dombrovskis and Ms Thyssen, Commissioner for

Employment, Social Afairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, who spoke later on in the conference,

highlighted that millions of people have beneitted from the Youth Guarantee scheme. This

programme has been a catalyst for change, creating a broader momentum for tailor-made

solutions and training support programmes throughout Member States. According to her

EU youth unemployment has decreased from the peak in 2013 of 24% to 17,2% in March this

year. Commission igures show that 16 million young people have entered Youth Guarantee

schemes and 10 million have taken up an ofer within the scheme towards employment,

training or continued education. Mr Thyssen gave concrete examples on how Youth

Guarantee action has evolved, like in Croatia where a tracking system and dedicated Career

Guidance Centres for outreach and activation have been created. Or in Finland where one-

stop guidance centres have been established.

But more action needed

Both Commissioners also underlined that more action is needed, like the ECA concludes in

its special report and also the European Parliament highlighted in its resolution of January

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ECA conference on Youth Employment: confronting

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continued

2017 on the European Social Pillar. With a current EU unemployment igure for young people

of almost 4 million and an unequal spread across Member States, from 6,7% in Germany to

more than 30% in Cyprus and Italy, Member States and the Commission need to reach out

to groups and regions most in need, including through reform eforts undertaken through

the European Semester. Recent EU initiatives in that direction, presented in a Youth Package

in December 2016, are the establishment of a European Solidary Corps, with projects to

increase mobility of apprentices. This also includes proposals to increase the funding of the

Youth Employment Initiative from 6,4 billion euro to 8,4 billion euro until 2020. Also new

is the Erasmus PRO programme for cross-border apprenticeships and vocational mobility,

opening up the Erasmus experience beyond university students. Essential to make youth

employment happen are investments in the real economy, through the European Fund

for Strategic Investments (the ‘Juncker Plan’) and the European Structural and Investment

Funds. Both Commissioners welcomed the feedback the ECA has given on the EU initiatives

undertaken on what tangible results for young people in Europe have been achieved and

how to do better.

ECA indings critical on Youth Employment schemes

The main indings of the most recent ECA special report 5/17 ‘Youth employment – have EU

policies made a diference?’ were presented by means of a video and highlighted by

Ms Ivanova, Member-rapporteur for this report and initiator of the conference. She

welcomed the progress made in the seven Member States visited by the ECA, but underlined

that the youth employment situation remains alarming and that action to help young

people is needed: ‘This complex issue needs a holistic approach. Policymakers should make

sure that EU policy does not raise expectations that cannot be fulilled. This is particularly

critical for young people.’ She pointed out the ECA’s indings such as: a lack of strategies

with clear milestones, no assessment of cost and available funding by Member States,

diiculties with the sustainable integration of who are not in employment, education or

training (‘NEETs’), and the weak quality of data. In 2015 Ms Ivanova was also rapporteur for

another report on the topic, assessing whether the Commission had provided appropriate

support to Member States in setting their Youth Guarantee schemes and reviezing possible

implementation risks.

The Commissioner responsible for this policy area, Ms Thyssen, found that many of the ECA

indings coincide the Commission’s own conclusions as it had indicated at the end of last

year: more eforts are needed to support young people who are most detached from the

labour market, more individualised accompanying measures are needed and the quality of

data needs to be improved. Ms Thyssen indicated on some of these points the speciic action

the Commission takes or intends to take, mostly in cooperation with the Member States who

have a primary responsibility for national implementation.

Panel discussions: concerns of youth: what to do to ind the right job?

Before starting the irst panel discussion, focusing on the way forward for policy makers, a

video with testimonials of young people throughout Europe was shown. The moderator of

the irst panel, Mark Rogerson, ECA spokesperson, invited a group of young people present

in the audience, a group of students from Austria, to react on what they had heard so far.

After all, they are the irst ones concerned and to be stimulated by the EU programmes for

employment. Many students present indicated to be worried about inding a job in the near

future. Worries were expressed on the need for speciic contacts to ind a good job. It might

be possible to ind a job but much more diicult to ind the right one.

The irst panel discussion focused on the way forward for policy makers on youth

employment. Panel members representing the Employment Committee of the EU, the

European Network of Public Employment Services, European Commission’s DG Employment,

Iliana Ivanova

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ECA conference on Youth Employment: confronting

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continued

Social Afairs and Inclusion, and including two Members of the European Parliament

(Romana Tomc and Derek Vaughan) overall agreed that not only more but particularly

doing things diferently is necessary to get young people more into the labour market:

more dialogue between public employment services and businesses on the one hand with

educators on the other hand is needed. This to ind out which skills are really needed to

prevent a mismatch between high qualiied people and employers not inding people with

the right skills. More intensive data mining is necessary to ind out the reasons why the

young people who stay longer unemployed are in that particular situation; preparing young

people for diferent jobs in the future since life time jobs is something of the past; and more

focus on real training jobs, with real responsibilities and creating a perspective to a proper

job.

Obtaining skills through on the job training

An important challenge will be how to motivate young people to invest in getting the

skills to ind the right job for them. How to engage them towards the job market? Or, as

Commissioner Thyssen called it, and which was reiterated by panel members: ‘ind, mind,

bind,’ with as starting point the strong points a person has and build on them. taking stock

of strong points and build on them. This should go hand in hand with a proper analysis of

the labour market on which skills are needed. However, the irst condition to be fulilled

will remain the existence of jobs, i.e. companies having a demand for employees with skill,

triggered by economic growth. A real demand, not jobs which are paid out of a public

budget and which, according to Ms Tomc, will vanish once that budget is depleted. From the

panel discussion it also evolved that youth employment policies concerns many diferent

other policy areas, like education, innovation policy and better regulation measures, slashing

potential barriers and administrative burdens. Such a linkage makes a precise identiication

of which measure works and which not, more diicult, and, as is also identiied in the ECA

report, data collection is cumbersome, with many parties, several periods and multiple

programmes involved.

Mr Fons Leroy, panel member and President of the European Network of Public Employment

Services, identiied training on the work loor as a focal point for the future since skills

and training needs change so fast nowadays. This means training inside companies also

for young job seekers. This is one of the reasons why through the European Social Funds

programme Alliance for Apprenticeship many investments go to in-company training. This

could also be an answer to a question from the audience highlighting shortages in skilled

labour in certain regions: in-house training and promoting mobility among young people,

enabled by one of the foundations of the single market: freedom of movement.

Ways forward for the labour market

The second panel discussion was moderated by Ms Martina Dlabajova, Member of the

European Parliament, and who urged the panel to bring forward workable solutions. Ms

Dlabajova underlined that as MEP and Member of both the Budgetary Control Committee

and Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Afairs she herself has to

deal with diferent perspectives on the same coin. She would like to have a discussion

which measures work well and which measures do absolutely not work. Panel members

highlighted facilitating measures for the transition of school to the labour market, job

creation by SMEs and micro-companies, improving apprenticeships in Europe, communicate

better to young people and their parents where there are career opportunities and jobs.

This also includes young people exploring themselves were their own strengths are and

extend them; also think about better partnerships between public and private employment

services and their social partners. Very important will also be to restrain the costs of labors:

high minimum wages can prevent labour integration of young people. As wrong measures

subsidised employment was highlighted, since often they do not create sustainable jobs,

and also a one size its all approach: diversity is required, involving stakeholders, lexibility

and adaptability to for example IT needs. Measures that work are characterised by diversiied

approaches and tailor made career guidance.

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ECA conference on Youth Employment: confronting

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continued

Interview with Ms Martina Dlabajova, Member of the European Parliament

and vice-chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control and Member of the

Committee on Employment and Social Afairs

Ms Dlabajova found it most welcome that the topic of youth

employment was brought again into the European Parliament, with

the involvement of the European Commission and the Council. The

topic certainly deserves more time and she would welcome more

meetings on this topic to bring parties and best practices together.

Ms Dlabajova underlined to be fully aware of the substantial

responsibility Member States have in the area of youth employment

but in her view the European Parliament can contribute in getting the

bigger picture of what is happening in the EU, the more since there are

big diferences between Member States. Getting such a perspective is

important for every Member State.

From her own business experiences Ms Dlabajova indicated that it is important to help

young people to make the transfer from education to the labour market much smoother.

That is why she strongly supports this transition through traineeships, apprenticeships,

etc. She said: ‘what matters here is not only the real work but also nurturing the attitude to

work. The latter is very delicate because irst work experiences and how to engage to work

are essential.’ One of her own big projects has been to create ‘dream traineeships’, ofering

traineeships to young people through the programme ‘Why not?’. As MEP, she and her

staf ofered over 50 traineeships during the past two years. One of them also included a

secondment of one her trainees to the ECA. Through these traineeships Ms Dlabajova wants

to show people the wide variety of work opportunities.

For Ms Dlabajova the EU is an excellent platform to share best practice examples from local,

national and European projects. It is very important to know which projects are working

well and why, and then use the best examples in diferent regions. Her preference goes to

a better use of what works well before creating new things. The EU should promote lexible

solutions, to be adapted to regional needs. With the Youth Guarantee scheme Ms Dlabajova

was chairing a fact-inding mission of the Budgetary Control Committee to Sicily and

Calabria, both regions having high unemployment rates. According to her, what stood out

was a lack of cooperation between all levels of administration. Furthermore policy-makers

need to listen much more to what entrepreneurs need in order to match skills with jobs:

what kind of labour force companies need should be the leading angle. Otherwise these

companies will not ind the skills needed. Ms Dlabajova saw statistics indicating that 40% of

companies in Europe cannot ind people with skills required for the positions they have. So

it will be crucial to identify, by talking to companies, their future needs regarding skills and

training.

As MEP Ms Dlabajova tries to reach out to young people very often by going to schools,

universities, meetings with young people, for example soon with a group of over 200

young people in the Czech Republic. Important is to listen to them, to their concerns, but

to employers as well to meet expectations. Also in this respect she very much welcomed

the conference, and the fact that the ECA reports focus on eiciency and efectiveness of

measures and funds put at the disposal. The ECA reports show how important it will be to

produce measurable results to show what works and what does not, in an important area

like youth employment.

Martina Dlabajova

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continued

Young people needs to enter the labour market

Representatives of young people, for example of the European Youth Forum, indicated

that social partners need to reach out to young people, traineeships need to go beyond

numbers and ofer contents and true experience gaining. It will be important to create a

structure where young people can gradually engage, also to reach out to youngsters not

used to a working environment. Furthermore access to funding needs to be facilitated and

that all regions can apply for funding.

Practical examples on what works and what not

Ms Dlabajova, in her role as moderator, encouraged the panel to give concrete examples

that show measurable results and how a mismatch between education and training needs

can be avoided. The representative of Businesseurope, Mr Maxime Cerutti, highlighted

the needs of educators to adapt to megatrends in businesses, like digitalisation and the

greening of the economy. The qualiication frameworks need to relect these occupational

realities, i.e. adapt to these business needs. For doing this enterprises need to be on board

when designing programmes. Otherwise employers who cannot ind people on the

labour market, need to train people on the job, which will lead to higher costs for them.

Other remarks related to stimulating life-long learning programmes to identify and deliver

the most need skills quickly. Important will remain a partnership approach, where all

stakeholders (employer, future employee, educator) work together designing solutions.

Research shows that there where education and the labour market are most separated

young people struggle the most to ind jobs.

Change in mentality needed: concrete action instead of principles

Youth representatives underlined the need for a mentality change and reforms to prevent

discrimination of young people when trying to ind a job. Policy-makers launch many

principles, like the European Commission’s did in the European social pillars. What is

particularly needed is concrete action to prevent young people from being discriminated

on the job market. For example, with minimum youth wages sometimes young people

are earning less simply because of their young age, despite their skills. Other examples

are exclusion of young refugees from the labour market, or young Roma people, or even

young parents. According to Carina Autengruber of the European Youth Forum, not to act

against these violations are political decisions that should not occur in 2017.

One of the concerns expressed was whether it was actually possible to remain in contact

with young people in Member States. Ms Dlabajova underlined that as MEP she was often

in dialogue with youth representatives in Europe and particularly in her country, and that

with the European Youth Forum and many young people present in the conference the

ingredients for a dialogue were present. Ms Autengruber added that in many Member

States there are National Youth Councils representing young people, involved in contacts

with social partners and monitoring data and signalling trends on the labour market.

Getting ahead is getting started

The representatives from BusinessEurope and the European Youth Forum found each

other agreeing that radical reforms are necessary, involving social partners: enterprises

and trade unions have a key role to play in these reforms, a topic also discussed in

an upcoming seminar on social partners in the reform process and the European

Semester process. For the Youth Guarantee schemes there is certainly some efect and

young people are reached, but most resources, both in budget and services, for youth

employment are still at the national level. As for engagement of the young people present

they were challenged whether they would be interested to become an entrepreneur.

Two of the students present indicated to have plans into that direction. Another concern

expressed by a student was the heavy requirements from employees towards young

people regarding experience, which creates a gap between those leaving school and

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the minimum work experience requirement for a irst job. Ms Dlabajova concluded the session that there

were still many things open to discuss in a future conference but that the secret to getting ahead with this

problem is getting started and working together to tackle the problems in a practical way.

Closing remarks by Maltese Presidency and future Estonian Presidency

Employment as essential point in the EU economy…and vice versa.

On behalf of the Maltese Presidency of the Council, his Excellency Neil Kerr, Ambassador of Malta to the EU,

highlighted the importance of youth employment as essential part of the economy in the EU. The ECA special

report on this topic acknowledges that progress has been made in this area but he also underlined that there

is still more work to be done. Reaching the heterogeneous group of unemployed young people requires

strong eforts from national authorities, certainly in the aftermath of the inancial crisis, which hit the younger

generations severely with social efects till today. Mr Kerr highlighted the need so support partnerships

between employment, education and youth sectors, as the EU cannot allow for an entire generation to

sufer the consequences of the crises. The EU needs to do its utmost to improve young people’s employment

perspectives. Several EU schemes have been initiated and the ECA report shows that realistic and achievable

objectives need to be set for these schemes. Transnational project initiatives need to be supported, according

to the ambassador, to help achieving policy learning and sharing of best practices: we can all learn from

each other and foster economic and social cohesion across Europe. Achieving results will also strengthen the

European project and the belief of EU citizens in it. Mr Kerr pled for close cooperation with the ECA in its role

as guardian of the EU inances to ensure that the use of funds for youth employment is truly maximised.

Interview with His Excellency Mr Neil Kerr, Ambassador, Deputy

Permanent Representative of Malta to the EU

Ambassador Kerr underlined that the social dimension and social inclusion

are at the core of the priorities of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of

the EU. The younger generation might be more diicult to reach than other

generations while at the same time they were made to bear the major brunt

of the inancial crisis. So they need an extra push, and an extra hand to get

them out of the vicious cycle of unemployment and get it right at the start

of their employment career. The ECA report clearly acknowledges that good

work has been carried out but also highlights that more needs to be carried

out to help the 4 million young persons who are still unemployed. When

asked about possible deadweight risks of EU funding in this area, being EU

funding replacing national funding instead of adding to it, Mr Kerr replied

that the ambition should be to maximise every euro being made available

for the area of youth employment, whether it comes from EU or national

sources. We should aim for a multiplier efect, whereby EU and national funds

supplement each other. Cooperation with EU organisations will be essential

to ensure that the use and efects of funds are maximised, with the role of the

European Court of Auditors being fundamental in this regard.

For the Maltese presidency it was important to end key legislative proposals

which have a tangible efect on the daily lifes of our citizens, such as those

relating to which led to the end of roaming mobile phone charges or the

portability of on-line content. But these proposals mean nothing to those

young people who do not even have the means to buy online subscriptions

or purchase a phone. The current conference puts the spotlight on one of

these essential aspects for people on this other dimension which the Maltese

presidency wants to progress upon, namely the advancement of the younger

generation on the labour market.

Neil Kerr

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For Europe to be successful its youth needs to be successful

Mr Janar Holm, Undersecretary of state of Labour Policy for Estonia, stated that

youth unemployment can be seen as a burden for society with negative efects on

economic growth. However, the core should be a sense of belonging for the young

generation and an opportunity for an own future. Mr Holm highlighted that ‘Europe

is not successful if our younger generation is not successful. If they do not feel as

full members of the society there is a lot at stake.’ That is why, in his view, the ECA’s

assessment of Youth Guarantee and other initiatieves is very helpful and important,

showing there is a lot of thought to ensure an active life of the youth for the future.

In Mr Holm’s view the report’s criticism will help to keep the head cool and the goals

clear. Estonia has a youth unemployment rate has decreased to 12,7%. Economic

and demographic factors led to this decrease but there is, according to Mr Holm,

evidence of substantial inluence of special measures towards this decrease, like labour

services initiated by government at diferent levels. To separate between all the factors

inluencing employment rates is very diicult. Results of programmes are visible but

the question will remain whether measures work in all circumstances. This might not

be the case. In Estonia an example of action undertaken is to involve young people

at an early stage in the labour market by simplifying labour market law for minors,

trying also through programmes to involve young people from 13 years onwards

during summer holidays. Estonia will look forward to see the European Commission’s

proposals on the European Solidarity core, which will have an important place on the

agenda under the up coming Estonian Presidency during the second half of 2017.

Mr Holm joined many other speakers thanking the ECA not for only having organised

a high level conference on the topic of youth employment but for having audited the

topic and put it higher on the political agenda.

Janar Holm

ECA Conference on Youth Employment at the Europan Parliament in Brussels

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Meetings with the Portuguese government

and Court of Auditors

By Marc-Oliver Heidkamp, private oice of Mr Lehne (President)

The ECA President Klaus-Heiner Lehne and the ECA Member João Figueiredo met with

Vítor Caldeira, President of the Portuguese Court of Auditors and former ECA President

and speaks with several Portuguese authorities during a visit in early May.

From left to right: Marc-Oliver Heidkamp, private oice of Mr Lehne;

Klaus-Heiner Lehne, ECA President; João Figueiredo ECA Member;

Vítor Caldeira, President of the Portugese Tribunal and former ECA

President; Elisabeth Franco, ECA Directorate of the Presidency

President Lehne and Mr Figueiredo, met with key government oicials in Lisbon on 2 May. They

were welcomed and accompanied by Vítor Caldeira, the Court’s former President and now head

of the Portuguese Supreme Audit Institution. The discussions with Prime Minister António Costa

and Minister of Finance Mário Centeno were successful. Awareness of the importance of the

Court’s work was raised and both expressed their support for the reforms in principle, especially

of the Annual Report. On 3 May the President, together with Mr Figueiredo and Mr Caldeira,

were received by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. President Lehne also

met the Secretary of State for European Afairs and spoke at a conference on the role of audit

institutions in public procurement.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

EUROSAI Congress, Istanbul: reaching out

to the European audit community

22-25 May 2017

By Radek Majer, Directorate of the Presidency

The EUROSAI steps into the future with an ambition to support innovative and efective

audits, and help its members to better address the opportunities and challenges they

face. EUROSAI is the organisation bringing together Supreme Audit Institutions of all over

Europe to exchange audit practices and developments. It organises every three years a

congress, this year held in Turkey.

50-strong member community to share audit practices

This EUROSAI congress brought together the 50-strong member community of European

continent SAIs (from Portugal in the west to Kazakhstan in the east) to adopt an ambitious

strategy for the next six years. The irst element of the new strategy is to support its

members in carrying out more innovative, efective and relevant audits. This includes

brokering between members the sharing of information and experience, and notably

support to developing and raising awareness of innovative audit approaches. The second

key element is developing the institutional capacities of its members.

The congress provided numerous opportunities to start contributing to these new

goals. Around a dozen workshops were organised to address the challenge of, and

inding practical solutions for, implementing INTOSAI’s public sector auditing standards

(ISSAIs). The wide range of subjects included IT audit and audits in the area of sustainable

development, the certiication of government inancial statements, harnessing

digitalisation and open data, building analytical teams and ensuring efective ethics

management. Experience was also shared on practices concerning selected phases of

the audit process and procedure, such as risk management, monitoring the responses of

auditees to audit indings and implementing recommendations. A useful role-play session

was held to simulate a cyber-attack on a SAI and to explore the diferent responses to be

given to such a threat.

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EUROSAI Congress, Istanbul

continued

ECA involvement continued

The ECA contributed to several breakout sessions and participated in the meeting of the

EUROSAI governing board organised immediately before the congress. After six years of

co-leading the EUROSAI the ECA stepped down as EUROSAI governing board member.

The ECA – as vice-chair of the INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee, the world body

responsible for developing public sector audit standards – will increase its focus on work

directly related to developing and implementing these public sector audit standards.

Nevertheless, the ECA will continue to contribute to the activities of the EUROSAI’s

working bodies on IT, ethics, environmental auditing and auditing of funds allocated to

disasters and catastrophes.

Increasing EUROSAI’s efectivenes

The EUROSAI community agreed that sustaining legitimacy in a situation of declining

trust in public institutions is an important aspect of its future work. Apart from

delivering better, relevant and timely output, SAIs should lead by example and remain

agile and responsive to recent developments. The congress recommended that its

members support the implementation and oversight of the United Nations’ Sustainable

Development Goals, notably by developing and carrying out relevant audits on the

subject of the goals. Another signiicant area of interest is increased focus on IT audit and

making best possible use of electronic data.

As the Auditor general of Finland Ms Yli-Viikari put it, ‘EUROSAI should sail in one direction,

despite the wind blowing from many directions and at diferent speeds.’ For the next three

years, the presidency of EUROSAI is in the hands of the Turkish Court of Accounts, and it’s

President Baş as chair. The new and agile organisational structure and modus operandi

approved by the congress should contribute to further enhancing the efectiveness and

eiciency of EUROSAI over the coming period. This positive outlook is relected in a new

logo and visual look for the organisation, as the result of an open competition among

EUROSAI members.

The next congress will be held in Prague in 2020.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

ECA auditors meet academics to discuss EU

accountability

By Torielle Perreur-Lloyd, Chamber III

The ECA’s second participation in an EUFINACCO workshop, was initiated by

Mr Cardif, ECA Member, with the support of President Lehne. Activities such as this

help to strengthen ties between the Court and the academic world, notably in the

context of the Court’s 40th anniversary.

EUFINACCO network members

EUFINACCO publication on inancial accountability in the EU

Bogna Kuckzynska (currently working in the Audit Quality Control Committee and Chamber V)

and I spent two sunny days in the middle of May at Berlin’s Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht

helping to strengthen ties between the Court and academia. We joined a workshop set up

under the aegis of the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).

The workshop was organised by the EUFINACCO research network, which aims to publish a

book on “Financial Accountability in the European Union”. Participants had sent abstracts for

inclusion in the book and made presentations to stimulate debate. Even when the main focus

of their research was not the ECA, each presenter included thoroughly interesting views on

our role and contribution to EU accountability from his or her own perspective as economist,

lawyer, sociologist or political scientist.

Bogna presented the ECA Special Report 27/16 on Governance at the European Commission.

The academics were keen to understand the impact that our work has on the Commission

not just through formal follow up to our recommendations, but also by way of reaction to the

questions we ask and the discussions we have as part of the audit.

I presented elements drawn from the ECA’s Chamber III’s risk review of the Commission’s

innovative tools for implementing EU external policy. One issue hotly debated was whether the

Commission was actually trying to avoid being held accountable in creating new and complex

uses for the external actions budget, or whether the primary focus was truly greater lexibility

and obtaining additional inancing for achieving development goals.

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ECA auditors meet academics to discuss EU accountability

continued

Of practical interest to us was the contribution by the Directorate on Budgetary Afairs

of the European Parliament. We shared interesting ideas on increasing the value of this

resource for the ECA. We suggested that the Directorate could publish a summary of

studies carried out each year as well as planned studies for the coming year. We noted that

their forthcoming study of “Management and Oversight of EU Trust Funds”, requested by

the European Parliament’s Budget and Control Committee (CONT), is closely related to a

high priority performance audit task proposed for the Court for 2018.

Coverage of wide range of research topics

The academics presented their research on varied topics covering: inancial accountability;

better regulation; the relationship between the EU, the EP and national parliaments;

the European Parliament’s role in setting up the European Social Fund; the European

Central Bank’s role as prudential regulator; Brexit and the EU budget; corporate social

responsibility and the EU inancial crisis; the legitimacy of lobbying and budgeting in the

UN system. We enjoyed thoroughly contributing to the lively debate from our perspective

as EU external auditors.

Of note was a polished presentation by Emma van Gelder of research she conducted

with Mr Brenninkmeijer, ECA Member, during an internship with his private oice on

“The complexity of setting shared enforcement powers between national and EU

enforcement authorities (EEAs)”. Referring to Court special reports on EEAs, she identiied

key accountability issues relating to access to the information the Court needs to carry

out its work, the quality and completeness of information provided and the absence of

clear performance frameworks with comprehensible indicators against which to measure

performance.

Interest in links the ECA

Our fellow participants at the workshop were keen to listen to our thoughts as

practitioners from the world of external audit. Many of them admitted to us privately

during breaks between sessions that they often felt that their knowledge was incomplete

because of their lack of hands on experience. They told us they would like to develop

links with the ECA and referred to the diiculty they had searching the ECA’s website

for documents. We commented on the relevance and usefulness of the book proposal

on which they are working. For example, we encouraged them to examine some more

forward-looking issues, such as the impact the advent of open data and blockchain

technology could have on EU accountability and on the ECA audit of the European

Commission.

Topping up on vitamin D in Berlin’s Tiergarten whilst waiting for our plane back to

Luxembourg, we agreed that we felt revived and refreshed by our foray into academia. It

had drawn us out of our comfort zone and inspired us to relect diferently on questions

that we deal with on a daily basis within our auditing boxes.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Internal Audit Service of the Commission ready

for more cooperation with the ECA

By Andreas Bolkart, Directorate of the Presidency

On 10 May 2017, the senior management team of the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS)

visited the ECA. During the visit the IAS delegation held a presentation and Q&A session open

to all ECA staf, presented the IAS’ 2017 work programme to representatives of all chambers

and inally met with members of the Technical Working Group for the audit approach for the

ECA’s Statement of Assurance.

IAS mandate and organisation

Speaking in a session in the ECA conference room attended by a high

number of interested colleagues, the IAS management team set out the

mission, role and working methods of the IAS. The IAS work is conducted

in conformance with the standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors

(IIA), as third line of defence of an organisation (see chart no. 1). Its

legal mandate is set out in articles 98 to 100 of the Financial Regulation.

Established in 2000, the IAS was reorganised in 2015 to become the sole

provider of internal audit services for the Commission by integrating the

former Internal Audit Capabilities of each Commission DG and executive

agency. The IAS reports to the Audit Progress Committee, chaired by First

Vice-President F. Timmermans, and consisting of six internal and three

external members. In addition, the IAS is also the internal auditor of more

than 40 EU Decentralised, Regulatory Agencies, Joint Undertakings and

other EU bodies.

Director General Manfred Kraf and his

team of directors introduced the

responsibilities of all units of the IAS and

encouraged ECA colleagues to develop

their contacts with the respective teams

at the IAS and exchange information on

on-going and planned audits.

The IAS has

161 staf posts and inalised about 200

engagements (100 audits and 100 follow-

up engagements) in 2016. The IAS plays a

key role in the Commission’s accountability

framework through individual inancial,

compliance and performance audit

engagements. It issues annual limited

conclusions on the state of internal control

in each DG and an overall opinion on the

inancial management at Commission level

(see chart no. 2). Upon invitation by the

respective service or body, the IAS also

performs consultancy engagements.

IAS delegation on 10 May 2017

Manfred Kraf – Director-General

Reinder van der Zee – Director IAS.A ''Audit in EU

Agencies and other autonomous bodies''

Jefrey Mason – Director IAS.B ''Audit in

Commission and Executive Agencies I''

Cristiana Giaccobbo – Director IAS.C ''Audit in

Commission and Executive Agencies II''

Sunil Beersing – Head of Unit IAS.01 ''

Quality Assurance, Resources, Administrative

coordination and Communication''

Christoph Nerlich – Head of Unit IAS.B4 ''Audit of

central services and oice''

Adrian Mircea – Assistant to the Director-General

Manfred Kraf - Director General

of the IAS since 1 March 2017.

Previously Mr Kraf was Deputy

Director General of DG BUDG.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Internal Audit Service of the Commission ready

for more cooperation with the ECA

continued

1. The Internal Auditor is the third line of defence of an organisation

Source: European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditing (ECIIA), Position paper,

"Improving cooperation between internal and external audit"

Six key areas

The

2017 audit plan

of the IAS focusses on six areas: Efective and eicient

use of resources (performance and inancial management audits), corrective

capacity, IT, governance/externalisation processes, better regulation and

inancial instruments. In a meeting with representatives from all chambers,

Mr Kraf highlighted the beneits that both the IAS and the ECA can draw

from exchanging information during the annual programming exercise as

well as between audit teams working in the same area. While remaining

independent, both sides can increase the relevance and pertinence

of their audit engagements by avoiding overlaps and by exploiting

complementarities between audit engagements.

IAS role in the assurance framework

In the meeting with the Technical Working Group on the

Statement of

Assurance audit approach of the ECA

the discussion centred on the

IAS’s role in the Commission’s accountability and assurance framework.

The IAS colleagues explained how the annual limited conclusions on the

state of internal control of individual DGs and the IAS overall opinion on

the Commission's inancial management are established. Both delegations

agreed to explore the deepening of the future cooperation in the context

of the reformulation of the ECA’s Statement of Assurance audit approach.

For instance, following the practice of other SAIs and their auditees’ internal

auditors, the ECA and the IAS could formalise their cooperation by signing

an agreement or Memorandum of Understanding. In this context, the role

of the IAS as the third line of defence of the Commission's internal control

system and the Court's role as external auditor of the EU will be taken into

consideration.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Internal Audit Service of the Commission ready

for more cooperation with the ECA

continued

2. IAS contribution to Commission's overall assurance framework

Source: Commission IAS

Find out more about the IAS:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/internal-audit-service

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Farewell to Rosmarie Carotti

By Alex Brenninkmeijer, ECA Member and chair of the Journal’s Editorial Board

Our Editor-in-chief retires

This Journal is the irst one produced without having Mrs Rosmarie Carotti as editor in

chief. After having worked for almost 40 years for the European Union, of which over

37 years for the European Court of Auditors (ECA), Rosmarie retired on the 1 May 2017

to enjoy her well-deserved pension.

Through her valuable contributions and excellent ideas Rosmarie has made the

Journal what it is nowadays: an inspiring monthly, relecting to the outside world the

diverse activities the European Court of Auditors undertakes to serve as European

watchdog, providing insight, understanding and guidance to Europe’s citizens and

policy-decision makers on how to improve the management of EU policies and

programmes. Rosemarie also brought relevant events in the outside world to the

Court. Rosmarie worked hard for this and is also very proud that the Journal has its

own ISSN number. And she cherished her journalistic approach in her work.

Rosmarie Carotti

Enormous curiosity

My irst encounter with Rosmarie was when I became almost her neighbour when I

started my work as ECA Member in 2014 and her oice was adjacent to my cabinet

oices. Often with a smile Rosmarie could surprise me sometimes when she greeted

me with an interesting remark or a query into ongoing issues. When I started chairing

the Journal’s Editorial Board our working relationship only intensiied. My own

experience, also conirmed by others who worked many more years with Rosmarie

than I did, is that Rosmarie’s approach to her work and life in general is characterised

by an enormous curiosity, remarkable tenacity to ind out things, and standing open

to undertake new things. This she did with a staunch adherence to her own style,

full trust in the course of her activities, sometimes confrontational and demanding

but always with conidence in the colleagues’ qualities to provide interesting

contributions to her Journal.

Push for the journal’s development

Her

Journal indeed: Rosmarie made the Journal to what is today: from an internal

news magazine to an external monthly with a strong focus on topics related to

external public auditing and sometimes complicated policy issues, like the European

Banking Union or digital tools in the audit world of today. The diference between

the irst Journal editions, starting in 2003 and the recent ones is striking: then articles

mostly written in French, now mostly in English. Then with information on local

activities in and around Luxembourg; now with a wider spectrum towards Brussels

and beyond. Then with administrative and personnel information, ranging from staf

concerts to advertisements for the in house travel agency; now with conferences

and seminars organised in Brussels, Luxembourg, etc. to discuss our indings with

stakeholders and possible ways forward. From inward looking to outward looking,

thereby also symbolising the trend not only the Court but also several other EU

organisations have taken: reaching out to policy-makers, media, citizens to show what

EU organisations do and how they try to make a diference to the better.

40 year anniversary activities

Rosmarie has handed the Journal over to her successor but she is still occupied with

research activities for the celebration of the ECA 40 year anniversary later this year.

Which shows how true her own words of the Journal’s May edition are: every end is

also a new beginning. I wish Rosmarie all the best in this task and in her retirement

and thank her, on behalf of the Editorial Board and the European Court of Auditors,

for all the good work she had been doing to make the Journal what it is today. We will

continue her work to develop the Journal further!

SOMMAIRE

Le mot du Secrétaire Général / Éditorial

The Bridge Forum Dialogue (Intervention de M. Jean-Claude TRICHET)

The Court's building policy : Interview with Neil USHER

La fiscalité de l'épargne et la retenue à la source au Luxembourg

Pour sourire

Farewell interview with Brian FOREY

UE - pays candidats : Taux de change au mois de mars 2003

Dit par / Plafond hôtels 2003

Informations administratives

Événements et publications de la Cour

Infos loisirs

Die Eier (Nach Wilhelm BUSCH)

Edition avril 2003

3-4

5-6

9-10

13-14

15-16

First edition of the Journal:

April 2003

OURNAL

European Court of Auditors

May 2017

Last edition of Ms Carotti:

May 2017

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Europe Day events in May:

EU auditors hand in hand with Europe’s citizens

By Damijan Fišer, Directorate of the Presidency

Do the EU institutions and their staf reach out to the citizens? Or let them see where

and how they work for them? Yes, we do

1950 Paris declaration: chartering the course of the EU

Every year on 9th May, Europe remembers Robert Schuman, the Luxembourg-born

French foreign minister who was one of the founding fathers of today’s EU. His 1950 Paris

declaration of Europe’s post WWII cooperation on coal and steel afairs cast aside the

likelihood of renewed hostilities between its neighbour countries and charted the course

of the Union as we know it. Over 70 years of peace between the EU’s countries and 60 years

of political cooperation within the bloc have turned the day into an annual celebration of

peace and unity, under the name of Europe Day.

The events surrounding Europe Day attract tens of thousands of visitors from across the

Union. They also represent an excellent opportunity for the EU institutions to reach out

to our citizens and help bridge the gap of conidence and trust “on the ground”. Many EU

institutions, particularly in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, open their doors to the

public for the day and take part in outdoor events, with information stands to provide

information directly to the public on what they do and how they do it.

The ECA stand in Luxembourg featured our largest ever

team of twelve – all sporting our institution’s trademark

green colours

At the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, now in our 40th year of safeguarding the

inancial interests of the EU citizens, we are proud to celebrate Europe Day with them. Year

after year, we reach out to them across Europe and let them know personally what is our

role, why our work is so important for Europe and its taxpayers, and what it actually means

for them in their everyday lives.

ECA staf, mainly auditors, provide personal accounts of the work they do to keep the EU inances on track and on record,

while conveying their enthusiasm for the European project and ECA’s role in it

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Europe Day events in May: EU auditors hand in hand with

Europe’s citizens

continued

EU audit quiz proved to be popular

To reach the largest possible number of citizens, we combine our regular presence in the

lagship places of the EU institutions with changing visits to the EU capitals of the year, and to

top it all we set up our information stands in some selected cities. So it was that, from 6th to

14th May this year, we took part in the EU open days in Brussels at the European Commission’s

headquarters, in Strasbourg at the European Parliament, in Tallinn as the capital of the incoming

Council presidency country, in Warsaw at the very popular Schuman parade, and last but not

least in our own hometown of Luxembourg, where the EU institutions and Member States’

national embassies held information stands at the European village in the city centre.

ECA Members Henri Grethen and João Figueiredo visit ECA stand in Luxembourg on 13th May

The visitors of ECA information stand in Strasbourg get a sneak preview of the ECA’s

new corporate video, premiering in French, English and German on 14th May

The large number of visitors who came to our information stands in their thousands were

eager to learn more about the facts and igures of the EU budget, how EU inances are

performing and how they are accounted for. They were arguably even more eager to take

part in our EU audit quiz, which again proved to be “the hot ticket” at many events. The

questions were educational and our auditors were happy to lend a hand and help the visitors

learn about our institution and our work, as we say in audit speak, “on the spot”. But, if the

quiz showed us one thing, it was that public awareness of the EU’s external auditor and the

guardian of its inances is not always and equally well-known across the EU’s population and

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Europe Day events in May: EU auditors hand in hand with

Europe’s citizens

continued

geography. At a time when the EU needs to face up to the threats of terrorism and the

challenges of populism, migration and Brexit, many citizens also tend to question its

sound inancial governance. This is our opportunity to help build and maintain their

trust in the work of the EU institutions by regularly reaching out to them. They need

to know they can turn to our institution as the steadfast source of facts about the EU

inances and provider of independent information on how their money is being spent

and invested by the EU on their behalf.

ECA Member Janusz Wojciechowski (Poland)

presented ECA’s work at the University in Warsaw

and took part in their student debate on 6th May

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

Health under control at the Medical

University of Łódź: joint conference held

together with the Polish NIK

By Kinga Wisniewska-Danek, private oice of Mr Wojciechowski

The EU should do more to protect its citizens

from pandemics and other serious health

threats, according to Special Report 28/16

of the European Court of Auditors, titled

‘Dealing with serious cross-border threats to

health in the EU: important steps taken but

more needs to be done.’ Mr Wojciechowski,

ECA Member and his private oice, together

with the Polish Supreme Audit Oice (the

NIK) and the Medical University of Łódź

organized a joint conference entitled “Health

under control”.

Press brieing held after the conference

From left to right: Janusz Wojciechowski, ECA Member; Krzysztof

Kwiatkowski, NIK President; professor Radzisław Kordek, rector of the

Medical University of Łódź

The event focused on reaching out to audiences interested in health-related issues

and took place on 12 April at the Medical University of Łódź. Members of the national

parliament, academics and representatives of regional medical and pharmaceutical

bodies attended the conference along with students from the Medical University of Łódź.

A press brieing held after the conference allowed a much wider audience to signiicantly

gain increased awareness of the Court`s work.

Serious health threats requiring a multilateral response

Both the ECA and the NIK presented the results of their work in the ield of health and

health safety. Referring to Special Report 28/16 Mr Wojciechowski stressed that serious

health threats are often cross-border problems and may require a multilateral response.

They can cause signiicant economic costs, especially when an emergency lasts for a long

time, disrupting travel, trade and public life. During the audit, auditors checked whether

there are mechanisms in Europe that ensure better protection of citizens in the event of

large scale health emergencies. This was one of the audits where the role of the ECA was

to be the advocate of citizens and not only the guardian of EU money.

EU Member States have the primary responsibility in the area of public health.

The European Commission's role consists mainly of providing support and taking

complementary action. A key milestone in building a stronger EU health security

framework was the adoption of a decision on serious cross-border threats to health

in 2013. The decision covers important areas such as the mandate and role of the

Health Security Committee, coordination of preparedness planning, including the joint

procurement of medical countermeasures, rules and systems for early warning and

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

‘Health under control’

The NIK/ECA/Medical University of Łódź joint conference held

in Poland

continued

response, as well as epidemiological surveillance. In addition to other issues, the auditors

found delays in implementing and developing the 2013 Decision and a number of gaps

in the Commission's internal coordination of health security activities across diferent

programmes and services. Scope to upgrade the early warning and response system was

also identiied.

Mr Wojciechowski stressed that the Decision provides good mechanisms to better protect

EU citizens. He indicated that a number of important steps have been taken and that

Member States can now act much more efectively together in the area of public health.

During the conference

From left to right: Janusz Wojciechowski, ECA Member;

Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, NIK President; professor Radzisław

Kordek, rector of the Medical University of Łódź

During the conference Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, President of the NIK, presented the most

signiicant indings of the NIK audit related to granting marketing authorizations for

dietary supplements1. As many as 89% of Poles report that they buy OTC drugs and

dietary supplements (according to CBOS data). The Polish market in dietary supplements

is developing rapidly, and the problem occurs therefore on an increasingly vast scale.

During the audit the NIK commissioned examinations of randomly selected dietary

supplements to ind out their actual composition. Although only a number of studies

were commissioned, there was a high percentage of products whose composition was

not as stated on the label or which contained ingredients harmful to human health. The

audit revealed that the Polish market in dietary supplements is a high health risk area,

insuiciently supervised by state authorities. Several attendees of the conference voiced

their interest in a possible future ECA audit on food safety and food information, which

could provide an insight into that issue in the European framework.

Reaching out to audiences in Member States

The “Health under control” conference showed that there is, especially within the Member

States, an interest in the Court`s work related to topics close to the citizen’s interests, such

as cross border health threats or health safety. Moreover, joining forces in communication

actions and dissemination of audit results is an area where the ECA can successfully

cooperate with other Supreme Audit Institutions. Such joint actions enable broader

audiences to be reached and enhance the impact of the messages the ECA wants to

convey.

P/16/078, audit coordinated by the NIK Regional Branch in Łódź.

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

FOCUS

Focus

Special

Report

N°07/2017

The certiication bodies’ new role on CAP expenditure: a

positive step towards a single audit model but with signiicant

weaknesses to be addressed

This report examines the role of the Certiication Bodies which provide opinions on the

legality and regularity of spending under the Common Agricultural Policy at Member

State level. The Common Agricultural Policy accounts for almost 40 per cent of the

EU Budget. We assessed whether a new framework set up in 2015 by the European

Commission enables the Certiication Bodies to form their opinions in line with EU

regulations and international audit standards. Although the framework is a positive step

towards a single audit model, we found that it is afected by signiicant weaknesses.

We make a number of recommendations for improvement, to be included in new

Commission guidelines due into force from 2018.

Published on

4 May 2017

Click here for our full Special Report

Special

Report

N°08/2017

EU isheries controls: more eforts needed

This report examines the efectiveness of the EU’s isheries control system – a key

element in safeguarding the sustainability in the long term of ish stocks and the

ishing sector. We found that the Member States were not yet carrying out all the

required controls, and that the control system itself needed to be updated. There

were weaknesses with the veriication of the accuracy of their leets’ capacity, with the

control of small vessels, with the reliability of reported catch data and with the equal

treatment of ishing operators in the application of sanctions. We make a number of

recommendations both to the European Commission and to the Member States to

improve isheries controls.

Published on

30 May 2017

Click here for our full Special Report

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 713: Rapport fra Den Europæiske Revisionsret juni 2017

ISSN 1831-449X

EDITION HIGHLIGHTS

ECA conference on Youth Employment:

confronting challenges and inding solutions

Xth EUROSAI Congress, Istanbul

ECA auditors meet academics to discuss EU

accountability

Cover:

- ECA conference on Youth Employment, Brussels, 10 May 2017

QJ-AD-17-006-2A-N